When Life Begins
by mystic-angel1
Summary: [Happy Birthday Annjirika!] You can be anywhere when your life begins. You find the right person and suddenly anything seems possible. [Yuriku oneshot.]


"When Life Begins."

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the hot characters that come with it, or Yuffie's shoes that she where's in AC, or anything else that could possible get me sued for mentioning it in this fic. This was written purely for enjoyment, and I am making no money. Which is why I'm not out watching Harry Potter 4 right now.

Disclaimer 2: PLEASE NOTE! MOOOST of the stuff Yuffie says in _italics_ are quotes that are said by other people, famous or not. In the _italics_, if it sounds poetic, it's probably not from me. Please enjoy them, but don't give me credit for them. Because they're beautiful quotes, I think, and you should research them and look at more quotes from the same people, and credit them for their beautiful words.

A/N: Well! Its only two months late but...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNJIRIKA!

I'm sorry it took FOREVER, but today I sat down and I REFUSED to not let myself finish it. Oh, fate tried. Yes, it did. It had people phone me and have my bladder fill up and have my stomach rumble. But no, I refused to be distracted. And that is how much I love you and how much I hope you love this story because you deserved to have stories written to you.

I also want to say thanks so so so so much for An Understanding, which meant a lot to me because you know how much I loved MM and how much I wanted a sequel even though you swore you'd never write one. And how you wrote it even though you said you couldn't do it properly, but I asked you to do it, and you did. And I really, really loved it. So thank you so much.

Anyway, Ann. If I could print out our very first conversation and read it every morning I would be a happy person every day, even on Mondays. I'm glad we both stumbled on Squffie's and then LJ and the Amekaze and then got MSN and then AIM and then joined Debeo because you're one of my favourite people.

So. In conclusion:

Love you, lovely.

Now, everyone else, before you read this, you should all go read in Annjirika's profile now and read An Understanding. But read Midnight Moonlight first, and then read an Island after that, and then, if you STILL have time after reading the REST of Ann's awesome stories, come back and read this one.

Also, everyone who reviews, if you know Annjirika, could you please leave a little bit about why you love Ann? For her birthday. And if you DON'T know Annjirika, write something about how awesome it would be if you knew her. Because, really, only a really awesome person could come up with a name like Annjirika! For her birthday. And also because I know she'll hate me for asking it.

* * *

_You can be anywhere when your life begins. You find the right person and suddenly anything seems possible. I remember most of seventeen; I remember the day we met. His smile, his touch. You can be anywhere when your life begins. When your future opens up in front of you. And you may not even realize it...but its already happening._

There was something to be said about living in Traverse Town and maintaining some level of sanity. Indeed, one was always kept amused by the threat of possible death and running around in circles whenever a Heartless appeared. But in those rare times where Traverse was peaceful and filled with sounds of clinking glasses and soft laughter, she could never find her fighting partner (He honestly vanished in to thin air, and he was her main source of amusement) and she often found herself observing the people around her from a shady corner or a high perch. But Yuffie Kisaragi was rarely satisfied with this hobby. Not until that day.

She noticed him first. Even surrounded by many different and equally interesting people, even from across the District he caught her eye before anything else. That wicked spark in his eyes, the way he reeked confidence even in a strange place to him. He stood, leaning against the door to the world as if waiting for something. Every part of her screamed for her to approach him but many things held her back. Instead she gave herself excuses to look over in his direction until he finally caught her eye.

"What?" He mouthed, lips twitching slightly as he caught her red handedly in a stare.

"Come here!" She mouthed in return, heart beating wildly.

"What?" He said, and she was surprised to see he seemed slightly annoyed. Apparently, she was a magnet for easily annoyed people.

"Come here!" She called, her voice carrying across the First District and causing several others in the Café to stare. She shrugged them off, gesturing wildly with her hands to the boy, who had straightened from the wall looking rather reluctant. He finally walked towards her in a slow stride, hands stuffed into the pockets of his slightly worn pants.

"What?" He said again, once he reached her, wicked spark directed completely on her and making her squirm. It was bad enough having Squall around with his glares and stares.

"You looked lonely over there." She said cheerfully, gesturing to the empty seat across from her table and smiling. "Have a seat."

"I..." The boy turned his green eyes nervously towards the World Door. "I'm meeting someone..."

"Your girlfriend the insanely jealous type?" She inquired, leaning over the table to maybe take a peek at who he was meeting.

He snorted. "Bit too old and green to be my girlfriend."

She smiled. "Then have a seat! I guarantee I can take on someone old and green if they get too leery."

His nervousness seemed to evaporate as he took the seat she offered, throwing his arm over the back of the chair and relaxing his body completely. It seemed to her that sitting was something he'd long been denying himself; leaning against the door couldn't have been all the comfortable. When he finally settled, he fixed his eyes on her, smiling amusedly as if he found her desire to talk to him interesting.

"Yuffie." She chirped, stretching her hand across the small, glass and circular table. "Yuffie Kisaragi. Hotel Occupant, Mystery Solver and Great Ninja Extrodinaire."

"Riku." He took her hand and shook it. "Just Riku."

"Just Riku?" Yuffie raised an eyebrow. "No titles? I put a lot of effort into mine you know."

"Mmm.." He folded his own hands on the table, staring at them with apparent interest. Yuffie sighed.

"Not a talker, huh?"

Whatever Riku might have said to that was lost, as the café around them exploded in terror. Someone screamed, chairs and tables were upturned as the people struggled to find shelter. Riku looked rather startled at the incident, but Yuffie stood calmly from her chair with a grim look.

A Heartless attack.

"Yuffie!" Squall Leonhart ducked around the broken chairs and tables, weapon ready in his hand as he took hold of her arm. "Get the stray people to safety. I'm heading to the Third District."

"Be careful!" She called after him, turning to her new companion with an apologetic look. "That's my cue."

"Mine too." He muttered, too quietly for his companion to hear. Not that it would have mattered anyway. Yuffie's round eyes were darting around the District nervously, and she seemed to have forgotten about him already. "I better go."

"You're leaving?" She turned to him, oddly disappointed considering she had only just met him and knew nothing but his name. "Will you be back?"

"I...don't know." He replied, confused.

More screams erupted in the distance, and Yuffie pulled two star shaped weapons from her pocket, nodding in a desperate farewell before she took off toward the Second District. Riku watched her go, that same twisting feeling in his stomach that assaulted him whenever he thought of Sora. Dread and guilt.

"You don't need anyone." A cold and clammy hand touched his shoulder. "You have more strength than any of these people. They are pawns. But you..."

"I know." He said, having heard this so many times before. "But I'm not helping you until I find Sora and Kairi."

"Of course." She nodded, fist clenching angrily inside her robe. He thought he could set her conditions?

"Can we leave?" He muttered, crossing his arms over his chest.

Maleficent smiled, pushing him along with her arm towards the World Exit. Riku took a deep breath as the doors shut behind them, releasing any lingering uncertainties. He didn't need anything in his way. He slouched into his seat as the gummi ship made way, folding his arms over his chest. Yuffie Kisagari was nothing but a pawn.

_It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them_.

She stopped looking for him after the first month; anyone who planned to return to Traverse usually returned much sooner than that. Whenever the door would open to reveal some new face she hoped it was him. But it never was and eventually she stopped thinking about him. What was there to think about anyway? Pretty guys were not something she was unaccustomed to after all. Heck, she lived with one. There wasn't really anything special about the boy she had met for only a few minutes. Yet it was with some hesitation that she let the thought of him go. She rarely had company her own age.

So it was a great surprise when she literally walked into him one morning after a particularly fierce Heartless attack. She had been extremely dazed; tired, sad and worried. More people had been lost than usual and Squall had been injured quite badly. She'd been dragging herself across the Second District, staring at her feet when she hit something solid and fell over backwards.

"Watch where you're going." Someone muttered. She expected a hand to help her up and received none, further agitating her. She stood up by herself and prepared to give him an earful.

"Listen Mister..." She stopped in shock, staring hard at the slightly rude person she'd walked into. "Riku?"

He was a little taller now, muscles finely toned. That spark around him that had caught her eye in the first place was stronger and he no longer looked nervous and lost as he had that first day two months ago. He was the perfect example of someone who had grown up from pure experience. He looked no older than fifteen.

"Yuffie, right?" He crossed his arms over his chest, surveying her without so much as a hint of chastity. "You're bleeding."

She touched her cheek, wincing at the sharp sting. She'd been so worried and busy that she hadn't even noticed her own wounds, small though they were. The young man's lips twitched, and he fished around in his back pocket, finally pulling out a potion and tossing it to her.

"You look pretty beat up." He commented, smirking at the eased expression on her face as the potion took effect. "Lover's tiff?"

She glared at him. "One, I don't have a lover. Two, if I did, I wouldn't let him beat me up!"

"Woah, easy!" He looked slightly scandalized. "I was kidding."

"Oh..." She slumped against the wall, scraping her palms against the brick as she slid to the ground. Riku stared down at her uncertainly before taking a seat beside her. He rested his head against the wall, tilting it slightly to look at her. Despite being completely and utterly impervious to other people's charms, he couldn't help but notice that she was pretty. She wasn't beautiful and she certainly wasn't the prettiest girl he had ever seen but she passed.

"So what happened?" He asked, throwing his arm casually over his knee, trying to look as though he didn't already know the answer.

"Heartless." She murmured, resting her eyes. "They came out of nowhere in huge amounts. A lot of people died."

He shifted. "I'm sure you did your best."

She opened her eyes to look at him, and he was disconcerted to see that they were brimming with tears. He absolutely could not stand when people cried. What was he supposed to do?

"A woman yelled at me." She whispered, tears dripping down her cheeks. "Her son died...she blamed me."

"That's not your fault!" Riku insisted, shocked. "She can't blame you.."

"Its my job to protect these people. My partner almost died trying to save them! I...I came out of the battle with a scratched cheek." She sobbed, burying her face into her knees. A warm hand gently touched her back, rubbing it in hesitant strokes. After while, she looked up at him, sniffling heavily. It was the type of comfort she would have expected from Squall.

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking quite nervous once again.

"A-alright?" He stuttered, pulling his hand away.

"Yeah." She lied, wiping the tears from her face and taking a deep breath in an attempt to get a grip on herself. She smiled reassuringly, deeply touched that he would comfort her like that when it was clear that it made him uncomfortable. Especially since he didn't even know her all that well. "Sorry."

He shrugged. "I've misplaced my best friend, if that's any consolation."

She chuckled and finally stood, offering Riku her hand. He hoisted himself up, brushing off the wet dirt from his pants. They stood in silence for a long time before it became to uncomfortable for Yuffie and she punched his shoulder. He frowned and rubbed it, although she was almost certain it couldn't of hurt him.

"So who are you?" She asked, feeling slightly more cheerful at the full sight of him and his wicked spark. "You must be someone if you keep popping up and leaving all the time."

He shifted, something she noticed he did a lot. "I'm no one. My home world was destroyed so...I thought I'd enjoy my freedom by traveling."

"You're lying, aren't you?" She grinned, taking a step closer.

"Maybe." He stood his ground, staring into her face to the point where their noses almost touched. "What's it to you?"

She shrugged, taking a step back. "Just curious. Thought I could catch you off guard and get some information out of you."

"You're weird." He turned, standing at the railing and draping himself over it. "You don't know me."

"Well, that's the thing about getting to know people." She said sarcastically. "You usually have to learn."

"You don't want to know me." He said quietly, stepping away once she had stepped up beside him. She looked at him curiously, prepared to open her mouth.

"Yuffie!" She turned, and gasped. Her partner was limping his towards her, a petty excuse for a smile yet a smile none the less gracing his features.

"Squall!" She cried, hurrying to his side. His face was heavily bruised and his lip was bleeding; but he was breathing and his heart was beating and that was all that really mattered. She threw her arms around him, ignoring his groan of protest.

"Are you alright?" He asked weakly, pulling at her arms in a vain attempt to loosen her grasp on his waist.

"I was so worried." She murmured, fighting the urge to slap him in the chest for being so dramatic and getting injured like he had. "You dope. Being all heroic."

"I'll be lucky if I get a scar." He scoffed, pushing her away and holding her at a safe distance. "You tend to over exaggerate things, I was never in that much danger. Sora stopped by and he had a mega potion on him."

Riku, who was politely being ignored, gasped quietly behind them.

"Sora's here?" Yuffie gasped excitedly. "Where is he?"

Leon shrugged. "Cid said he was running errands for him. I assume that means he's in the Third District with Merlin."

"Oh.." Yuffie shrugged. "I guess I'll seem him later then. Oh, hey Squall!"

"Leon." He corrected.

"Leon." She amended. "This is Riku!"

She whirled around to face him and looked around in surprise. He was gone...

"Guess you scared him off." She said lightly, turning back to her mentor with a small frown of confusion. Leon was frowning over her shoulder, and Yuffie was about to turn to see what he was looking at when he grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward the door to the Third District.

"Maleficent." He muttered under his breath. "Don't look and don't let her see you. She must be the reason the Heartless went nuts today."

"Where are we going?" She whispered, willing herself not to look at the monster she'd seen before but had been to young to remember.

"The vacant house." He murmured, pushing open the door. "Sora will meet us there."

Riku stood outside the Vacant House window some time later, unsure how to feel. If he should burst through the door and hug Sora as he so desperately wanted to or if he should burst through the door and strangle Sora as he so desperately wanted to. The girl, Yuffie, was occupied with Sora by taking turns in imitating the older man's stance. And he felt as though he were window shopping for friends he couldn't afford.

_I asked Squall and Aerith to tell me what is happiness. They both shook their heads and gave me a smile. As though I were trying to fool with them. Over time I learned that you will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. He taught me that even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness._

Eventually Yuffie learned that Riku was more of an enigma than she had originally expected. Over time she had learned to dissect the mysteries of certain people who preferred to communicate with the graceful language of _not_ speaking, yet she could never quite grasp on to what it was that made Riku that way. She'd compared him to an onion, a cake, that kid Tidus' hair cut and almost anything else she could think to describe him, but those things at least you could peel away the layers in order to find the center. Riku seemed to be a different person each time she met him and in the end, she'd decided to compare him to the moon. Inconsistent in its cycles and really very silvery.

Maybe he was growing, changing, learning. But she couldn't help but sense that something was off about him. He always seemed to appear at the worst moments, almost if the Heartless had followed him there. He avoided even the smallest questions about his past or what he was up to for the time being. And every time she offered to introduce him to Squall, he bolted as if she had set his shoes on fire. Riku, despite his claims, was not just a traveler.

Plus, there was that whole thing about his personality disorder.

"Riku, can I ask you something?"

It was the first time he had visited in over three months. Yuffie had been sitting outside Cid's when she first saw him walk through the door and she continued to spy as he crossed the stone ground of the First District, pausing to stare confusedly at the Mail Box as if he couldn't figure out why Yuffie wasn't standing there like she always was. Then she'd pounced on his back from above and he almost collapsed under her weight but he laughed in surprise and twirled her around and right then Yuffie felt something click into place. She barely pondered what it was, forgot about it a moment later, too distracted was she by his shiny hair.

Now they sat on the hidden balcony above the Café, Yuffie swinging her legs over the side and Riku staring off into the horizon. Of course, there _was _no horizon in Traverse Town, but she wasn't going to point any fingers. He'd bite them off. In any case, it was tradition that they do this, every time Riku visited. She liked the idea that they had a _thing_.

Riku turned away from the _horizon_. "I'm not taking off my pants, I'm not going to marry you and that thing on my forearm is a birthmark, my first kiss was with my best friend, yes, he is a guy, no, I'm not gay. So don't ask."

She smiled, knowing that information was intended to shut her up. " I wasn't going to ask any of those things." She told him innocently.

He gasped in mock embarrassment, dismissing her with a wave of his hand and turning his back again. She knew a dismissal well enough when she saw one, always having been the youngest of her group, the smallest, the most naive. She also knew that it wouldn't help to push him, that it would only make the information she desired more unachievable.

Then again, she couldn't listen in on Riku's discussions at doors, either.

"When are you going to come visit again?" She asked instead, throwing her hands behind her head and leaning back.

Riku brought up a hand to rest on the railing and shook his head, which she knew meant that he didn't know. She didn't bother to think too much on how she would know this simply by looking at him. She liked to watch him, and he didn't seem to mind, if he noticed at all.

There was something about the way he looked when he was thinking. The way he tilted his head or clenched his fists, or the way that his eyes flickered with each passing thought, like a day dream. Something that intrigued her, made her want to know what was inside his head. And made her feel special, that he came to share this thinking time with her, even if he didn't talk. That he at least enjoyed her company, even if it was silent.

"I like it when you visit." She said quietly, grinning up at the stars and unsure why she was smiling. Riku glanced over at her, and that flicker of a smile she had so long known in Squall appeared, and that warm, special feeling that had clicked in to place only hours before returned, warming her, burning her skin.

"Me too." He said softly, and she sat up, looking at him with wide eyes.

But he had already returned to the horizon.

_What one person needs in this time of darkness is to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults. I was so lucky to have people I could call family, when so many others were alone. Yet at the same time I felt it left me sheltered from the real horrors of my life, and from the real goodness of it too. Leon and Aerith loved me so completely that I had no idea how to deal with those realities when the time came..._

"Happy Birthday."

Yuffie blinked down at the small, brightly wrapped package in her hands, and then looked back up at her friend with surprised eyes. Riku smiled and raised an eyebrow mysteriously, sitting down in the chair across the table. Yuffie looked across the café, passed all the people who'd come to give their best wishes, friends and people she didn't know all that well. Aerith and Leon were standing together behind the bar, swirling the ice in their drinks and watching her with amusement. Yuffie could see it in their eyes that this had been planned.

She turned back to Riku. "How..."

"I came by last week to get some potions for this." He stretched out his arm, and she looked at the deep cut that now scarred his forearm. "But the little duckies sent me to that woman." He pointed to Aerith and looked at her with a tiny grin. "She seemed awfully excited when I told her my name. And she told me today was your birthday."

Yuffie flushed, recalling how much she'd ranted to Aerith about him, and wondering how much the sometimes too well-intended woman had told him. Flustered, she hid her embarrassment behind a sudden surge of annoyance.

"You were here last week?" She asked, putting the gift down. "Why didn't you come see me?"

Riku looked away. "I...I was going to! But then I thought I'd wait until your birthday so..so that the surprise would be even better!"

Hmm. Defensive tone. Stuttering. Classic signs someone was lying. But she didn't push.

"Oh." She said, and gripped his forearm, tugging it closer and leaning down for closer inspection. "This is a beauty. How'd you get it?"

Riku chuckled, and gently pulled his arm away. "I...uh..._ran_ into some pirates."

"And they _hooked_ you?" Yuffie laughed delightedly. "That's _awesome_!"

"Well, I'm glad you think me being sliced by a pirate is _funny_." He smiled and pushed his gift towards her. "Open it."

She took the box, tilting it left and right so that the light shined off the sparkling wrapping paper. Then she lifted it close to her ear and gave the box a little shake, listening to the gift move around inside, and deciding it was something heavy. Riku chuckled and she set it down, nimble fingers picking at the bow that held the box shut tight. When she pulled the top off and rummaged through the tissue paper, her fingers clenched around something metal, and she pulled out a shuriken.

The shuriken she'd been missing for weeks.

"Riku!" She shook the shuriken at him menacingly. "What kind of loser steals something and the gives it back to them as a gift!"

He laughed and plucked the tiny metal star from her fingers, flipping it around and showing the back to her. She crossed her eyes so she could read the tiny print, and then she saw what he had engraved on the back.

_Happy Birthday, Yuffie Kisaragi. Hotel Occupant, Mystery Solver and Great Ninja Extrodinaire. Love, Just Riku._

"Now its special, see." He explained, as she looked up at him. "So you have to use that one as like...your final attack. The last blow that finishes them off. And every time you use it, you have to say 'Bam Biatch!'" He nodded importantly. "Or it'll lose its magic."

"Riku." She said, eyes sparkling with contained laughter. "This is the lamest present I've ever been given." And she leaped across the table and threw her arms around him. Riku blinked in surprise and glanced over at Yuffie's friends, but they just looked away with their secretive little smiles.

"Hey now." He said, patting her on the back. "You're killing my grandeur."

"Psh. Grandeur." She snorted, and bent to re-examine her gift.

Riku breathed slowly, his heart beating frantically against his chest.

"Hey..."

"Yeah what?" She asked in a deep voice, mocking of his as she looked up at him. Her head tilted to the side a little at the droop of his lips and the look in his face, and Riku closed his eyes self-consciously, sure that they would betray his emotions now as they so often did.

"Dance with me?" He asked, eyes still firmly shut.

Yuffie blinked, and then blushed deeply. "No way!"

"What?" He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Why not?"

"There are people around!" She cried, throwing her arms in the air. "People who could see! Leon's that could see and make fun of Yuffie's for ages! Chairs and tables for Yuffie's to knock over! This is a dangerous environment!"

"What, you're that bad?" He grinned and reached across the table to take her hand. "C'mon."

He pulled her to the open space between all the tables and Yuffie was suddenly overwhelmed by his good mood, the music, the candles dancing light off of all the tables, the fact that this was actually _happening_. Riku had guided her arms around his neck and wrapped his own around her waist, was resting his head against hers as he swayed her around. He was so close and so warm and smelled so good...her whole body was buzzing.

"You're drooling." He whispered into her ear, lips twitching against her hair.

"Sorry." She whispered back. "You're that hot."

Whatever he would have said in response was lost when a hand touch each of their shoulders, and Yuffie pulled away to look questioningly at their intruder. Leon smiled, and as he leaned down to speak into her ear, she smelled alcohol on his breath and figured that was probably why.

"What is it?" She asked, grinning at the very idea that Squall Leonhart had gotten smashed at _her_ birthday...

"Have fun." He whispered, his voice hitching with that small hint of laughter he only ever allowed.

It took her a moment to realize the true meaning behind his words, and she smacked the air hard where his chest would have been, but Leon had already fled, holding his drink high above his head as he pushed and disappeared through the crowd.

"What did he say?" Riku asked, standing awkwardly amongst the group of dancers around them.

"Nothing." She grumbled, throwing her arms back around his neck. "He's simply enjoying the thrills of making inappropriate jokes to me now that I'm an adult. Hah. Joke's on _him_. Cid's been teaching me those ropes since I was ten..."

Riku chuckled, and then they danced in silence for a few long and comfortable seconds before he pulled back and looked down at her.

"What?" She asked, suddenly worried that she'd stepped on his foot or farted without knowing and he'd _smelled_ it...

"Wanna...go for a walk?" He leaned a little towards her and his eyebrow twitched, and Yuffie figured he was trying to be suggestive.

"Oh, ha ha." She narrowed her eyes at him and turned her head away. "I can... go for a walk with _any_ of the boys here, _gladly_, so I don't need to go for a walk with you–"

She didn't get much further, because he'd already taken her hand in his and dragged her out of the Café and into the District and she noticed that he wasn't wearing his gloves and his hands were big and warm and soft and so very _boy_-like. He smiled down at her, eyes alight with warmth and with knowing something she didn't as she twitched her fingers against his and their hands were suddenly intertwined.

_Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is... suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with_. _That's what happened to me. To us._

"What happened to you?" She asked, feeling surreal and ecstatic and nervous and trying not to blush and teetering on the brink of absolutely everything as he pulled her into the alleyway behind the Item Shop.

"What do you mean?" He asked, and his voice was very deep all of a sudden and Yuffie felt a jolt as he took her other hand. Why was he looking at her like _that_...

"You're...you're not as..." She struggled with the word. Insulting someone was so much more difficult when they were so close to you and you could just..."You're not as moody. You've been really nice and fun and its not that I didn't like you _before _but..."

Then her eyes widened as she took in her surroundings and she gave him an extremely scandaled look. "Riku! Are you gonna try and _rape_ me? Being nice and getting me into a dark alleyway just so you can–"

His lips against hers were nice, she found. She didn't enter some kind of euphoric alternate universe where her heart suddenly burned with love and she saw fireworks and her body felt like it was floating. But when you're raised by someone like Leon, who's idea of a bedtime story was to tell you that kissing a boy would make your lips fall off, well...she hadn't really expect that anyway.

"Oh..." She breathed as he pulled away after only a few seconds of the niceness. She blinked up at him, and as she saw the warm intensity in his green eyes, she really _did_ feel like her body was floating. "You were serious? About the walking thing?"

"Well, I wasn't trying to rape you." He said softly, and as he slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, her breathing quickened.

"Well, then, I think this is totally and grossly _cliche_, Riku." She told him in a disappointed voice, but she wasn't able to mold her face to match because she was suddenly very interested in looking at his mouth and the shock like numbness that was slowly creeping up on her. She had _kissed_ that mouth...

"Mm?" He leaned forward so that his nose was brushing with hers. "You want me to take it back? We can go back to the party and pretend it didn't happen and I'll come back in a few months with a hopefully more innovative pl–"

'Kind of like a gel ice pack.' She thought as _she_ kissed _him_ this time. 'A warm, gel ice pack...'

It was possible the most unromantic thought that could have occurred to her, but soon she found that all thoughts trailed off completely. Riku's lips were, indeed, a warm, wet weight against her own, and as they moved against hers, kissing was suddenly more than just nice. His chin would tilt away every so often, cautious, but Yuffie's lips would follow his away from her until it became a rhythm that Riku wasn't trying to escape anymore. His arms felt tight and strong around her waist, and as he pulled her against him, his shirt would ride up a little and she could feel the warm skin of his stomach against hers. That something nice was gone, slowly, oh so slowly, growing into something more and his kiss was something she _needed_ and she was floating outside herself, incapable of conscious thought and the feelings were building, building, building...

'_Leon. You dirty liar.'_

"You...leaving anytime...soon?" She murmured in between soft kisses, heart pounding as their passion slowed and there was nothing left but affection.

"You know..." He pulled his mouth away, and then he was right back, giving her a single chaste kiss but that was so desperate, it seemed any distance at all was pained. Yuffie was suddenly lost. How could something so...so strong have sprung up between them so suddenly, and just from one kiss?

He rest his forehead against hers and smiled. "I think I can stay for a few days, this time."

And right then Yuffie didn't care what had happened between them or how, only that she felt as if this had been a long time coming, in some crazy way, and her lips hadn't fallen off and all of this was just very, very good.

_I remember the time when he was gone almost as much as I remember the first time he kissed me. Normally, a change in relationship like that is supposed to be wonderful and amazing and all that jazz but...we weren't normal. The kind of dull ache I felt when I thought about him occasionally had then blossomed into a longing where I found myself missing him all the time. But Aerith said something to me: Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky._

_It was pretty but...it didn't really make me feel better, and I figured who ever had come up with that had probably never missed someone as I was missing him. But...I appreciated her help and it did give me something to think about..._

"Yuffie?"

Yuffie turned around. She was perched right outside the Accessory Shop, on the ledge that overlooked the entire First District. She liked to sit here a lot lately, because then she could see the doors, and see everyone who came _through_ the doors and pounce on them if they happened to be...

"Thinking about Riku, again?" Aerith smiled and hopped up to sit on the ledge right next to her, despite the fact that passers-by could possibly see up her skirt if they walked below. But the only person down there now was Leon, and he was too busy practicing with his Gunblade to really notice. That, and seeing each other's underwear is something you can do with someone, without paying much notice, when you've known each other so long and been through so much together.

"I try not to." Yuffie muttered, slightly embarrassed, and she snatched the tiny purse Aerith was holding so she could rummage through it. "He's been gone for three months..."

"He's always gone for at least three months." Leon pointed out, without missing a swing in his routine.

"Hey, you been keeping count, big guy?" She snarled down at him, throwing Aerith's lipstick at his head.

"Well, I kind of _notice_ when he's here because you're gone out with _him_ for hours and hours and its actually _quiet_ but then you come back at three in the _morning_ and you wake me up to tell me word for word what he _said_ and–"

"Yeah? _You're_ just _angry_ because when Riku decides to stay one day, we'll get serious and fall in love and get married and make babies, and _you'll_ be depressed because I won't be able to room with _you_ anymore and I'm _secretly_ the only thing that's keeping you from diving head _first_ into ice-cold water and–"

Aerith carefully took her purse from Yuffie's grasp in case the younger girl decided to throw more of her make up, and when Yuffie glanced over she saw the small smile and the sparkling eyes that meant that Aerith wanted to have a serious talk. Yuffie had hated that look at first, because it usually ended up with Yuffie buying first bras, then pads, and then her very first skirt, but sometimes, especially now, Yuffie didn't mind a _little_ girl talk, at least. And she knew Aerith was worried about her.

"I miss him like crazy." She murmured sadly, and if she was really paying attention she would have seen Leon's shoulders loosen and Aerith's eyes sadden, but she was too lost in self pity to notice any of those things. "I mean, I kind of missed him before but now it's like...if I don't talk to him soon, life is gonna fall apart for me."

"It won't." Aerith assured her, wrapping an arm around the younger girl. "I know it seems like that, but it'll get better. Trust me. Mine's been gone for nine years."

"Mine's _dead_." Leon chimed in from below, and Yuffie wasn't sure if she was supposed to laugh or not. When she glanced down, Leon had come over to the wall and looked up at her, despite the fact that he could probably see up Aerith's skirt. He wasn't smiling, but he had that look that he usually had when he was trying to be nice but tough at the same time, a kind of combination look of intimidating posture and understanding eyes.

And suddenly, Yuffie felt better. In the same way that she'd felt better as a child when they'd comforted her through thunderstorms. And in the same way that Yuffie had known the roof wasn't going to come off from the storm, she now knew that she would see Riku soon. And when she did, it would feel ten times better than before, because she _could _see him. Leon couldn't see Rinoa, and Aerith would probably never see Cloud. Yuffie was lucky.

"Oh..." Yuffie blinked up at the sky. "So...Riku's gonna be gone for nine years and then I'll find out he's dead? _Thanks_ guys."

"That is _not _what we were _saying_–"

"Well, _maybe_ if you made your _meaning _a little more _clear_–"

"Hey." Aerith interrupted their exchange with a smile. "Isn't that him now?"

Yuffie would scream when she saw him, a bag slung over his shoulder as he pushed his way through the door. She would tackle him to the ground and pound a fist into his chest as he chuckled, and his arms would come around her and yank her down with him. And she would miss her friends, who were really her family, exchanging a look and deciding it was time to let her go.

It would be crazy, how quickly they fell in love. How much they would love each other even in reality they only ever spent short times together. They would kiss, laugh, play, and live, and none of it would make sense to Yuffie, but she would feel it. Their love grew so strong she forgot to question it, and when she did, he only told her once:

"If I never met you, I wouldn't like you. If I didn't like you, I wouldn't love you. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't miss you. But I did, I do, and I will."

_A sad thing in life is that sometimes you meet someone who means a lot to you only to find out in the end that it was never bound to be and you just have to let go. Yeah, it was sad. But I wasn't sad at the time. I was angry. So unbelievably angry. With myself. With him. With the whole impossibility of the situation and how stupid I had been..._

"No."

Sora, Aerith and Leon all blinked, but Yuffie was not to be blinked at. She kept shaking her head, kept her arms crossed, refused to believe what they were trying to say to her. Yeah, sure, it was a weird coincidence but there was no way that Riku could be Sora's infamous ex-best friend who had been working against them all along. Why would Riku befriend her if he was evil? How could someone like Riku even _be_ evil?

"No. You're wrong." She grinned at Sora, almost proudly. "I'm sure there are tons of Riku's."

"Tons of Riku's with silver hair and green eyes?" Such a question would usually come from Leon, but this time it had come from Aerith. Yuffie stared at her. With Leon she could have come up with some sort of retort but when Aerith said something like that, it was to be taken totally seriously as the truth.

_But...!_

"There's no way. Riku wasn't...he never..." She sat down hard on the bed, and she was sitting on Leon's side but she didn't care. She sat in silence and stared lifelessly at the ground for a long while. Riku's appearances and sudden disappearances whenever there were Heartless. Riku's reactions whenever there was mention of Sora. Riku's refusal to tell her where he went when he left. And all of Riku's injuries that could all be related to Sora's quest...

_Oh god. Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod._

She sat still as Sora told her what he had to do, that he had to fight Riku and maybe kill him. She sat as Sora told her that he couldn't believe it either, that he wanted the real Riku back but the real Riku was gone forever. She sat when Sora left. She sat when Aerith hugged her. She sat when Leon sat beside her and they sat together for hours.

"That bastard." She seethed suddenly, fists clenching in the sheets. "That fucking _bastard_."

"What do you wanna do?" Leon asked, turning to look at her.

"I don't know." She breathed, and with that breath the tears broke the damn and came pouring down her cheeks. Leon grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close and she sobbed into his neck for ages and ages. "I don't know...I don't know!"

She cried until there were no tears left and then she yelled until she had no voice and Leon made her go to bed. But she hardly slept. And the next day she sat outside, angry, brooding, and despite Aerith's worry-near-tears and Leon's attempt to cheer her by complaining that now _he_ couldn't brood anymore. She sat outside for days and days and days and then one week or two and she sat and sat and _still_ sat when Sora came to her and said:

"I'm sorry."

_In your life, you meet people. Well, duh. Some you never think about again. Some, you wonder what happened to them. There are some that you wonder if they ever think about you. And then there are some you wish you never had to think about again. But you do. And I did. Even if all along he'd been controlled by the Darkness and he'd saved everyone at the end, I was still angry. Still angry at what he'd done, sure. But also angry that he'd said his last words to everyone but me. But slowly, that anger faded. I went on with life. I fought when the Heartless returned and I was back to my old self. But not a day went by when I didn't think of him, even if I didn't want to anymore._

_And the day, nearly two years later, that I actually saw him again...well..._

"Twenty nine goin' on _sixty_, Old Man." Yuffie called out as she dodged another blast from Leon's Gunblade and skipped around the First District. She launched her Conformer up into the air and it did a clean circle around the closest tree, but Leon jumped quickly out of the way of its path.

"Old man? Old man?" He smirked, and suddenly he was around the tree and his Blade had come up and down and she cried out as he hit her in the chest and she fell right over.Leon laughed heartedly, and it was this rare sound that frustrated her the most, because if Leon laughed at anything, it couldn't be at her. Murmuring curses under her breath, she pulled a shuriken from her belt. She held it out, ready to take aim, but the street light flashed against it and something caught her eye.

_Happy Birthday, Yuffie Kisaragi. Hotel Occupant, Mystery Solver and Great Ninja Extrodinaire. Love, Just Riku._

She stopped and stared, and her heart pounded so painfully. She'd kept this one at the back of her belt so that she'd never have to use it. She'd never grabbed it before. A wave of emotion she hadn't felt in so long came over her then, and she clasped a hand to her mouth in an effort to keep it down. But she sniffed loudly, tears stinging the sides of her eyes anyway.

"Yuffie?" Leon dropped his weapon to his side, taking a step closer. "Hey–"

"BAM BIOTCH!" She screamed, and let the shuriken fly. It struck Leon at his good hand, and Yuffie forgot her feelings for a second only to wonder at this. She'd _never_ been able to hit his gun hand before. But just that, Leon cried out and dropped his weapon, pulling his bloody hand in to his chest.

The ground trembled a little as it usually did when the World Doors opened, but Yuffie didn't pay the doors much mind as she wrapped her headband around Leon's hand almost apologetically. It wasn't until she heard something clatter and the sound of a body hitting the ground that she turned to look in alarm, and some part of her would wonder for the rest of her life if something would have been different if she hadn't.

"Sora!" She and Leon called simultaneously, and shared a look before they ran to his side.

The brunette, so much taller than the last time he'd been here, was leaning over someone, helping them sit up, and the obvious identity of this person was what made Yuffie stop before they'd even reached him. Riku was, and always had been since the first time she'd met him, totally unmistakable.

"What happened?" Leon questioned as he knelt down beside him and helped the Keyblade Master keep his friend up right.

"I got him out of Kingdom Hearts." Sora replied, voice hoarse. He knelt over his best friend and patted his face. "Come on, Riku. Time to wake up, you lazy bum."

"Nnn..." Riku's head shifted and as he stirred, Yuffie's feet carried her over and she knelt down beside him as well. The older boy panicked as he no doubt noticed the blindfold, but Sora took his arms and held them tightly. But Riku continued to cry out, and Yuffie leaned forward impulsively, running a hand carefully through his hair.

"Shh." She murmured, ignoring Leon and Sora's look. "It's okay."

Riku stilled, and his head turned towards her. Slowly, so slowly that Yuffie felt in her own pounding heart that time had stopped, he lifted his arm, then his hand, and drifted the pads of his fingers over Yuffie's face. His brow furrowed, and Yuffie's heart stopped.

But then, a smile in its truest form broke over his face and his breath shuddered.

"Yuffie..." He whispered. "Yuffie..."

"Yeah." She whispered back, and her face twisted and a dam much stronger than ever before broke and she sobbed. "Its me..."

It wouldn't be perfect. She wouldn't forgive him or trust him for a very long time. But somewhere through when he leaned up to kiss her with tears streaming down both their faces or when she sat up with him at night and listened to his nightmares. When she taught him how to walk with a blindfold or when she held his hand when he took the blindfold off. When they fought passionately for the first time and made love passionately for the first time. When she asked him never to leave and he asked her to be his forever. Much in the way they had grown from strangers, to acquaintances, to friends, to lovers, to being in love and so much more than that.

She _did_ learn to forgive and trust him again. She learned lots of other things too. Like how to walk with a blindfold just so she could teach him. Like sex didn't kill you like Leon had told her. Like people who leave you feel as hurt as you do, because no one could see the expression on Cloud's face when he'd returned and _not _have known that. She learned that Leon was a virgo and so was Riku and that's why they liked to gang up against her and make her clean out her closet every month. That people who get cold feet before their wedding are not seflish. That a baby bonds with its mother in the first three minutes. That life was so crazy and wild and random that you could meet the love of your life, the meaning of your life, the one you really need, the one who really needs you, the one you'd grow old with and so, so much more, all in one person. A person who was leaning against a door as if waiting for something. And life was so crazy and wild and random that...that something could be you.

_You can be anywhere when your life begins. You find the right person and suddenly anything seems possible._ _When your future opens up in front of you. And you may not even realize it...but its already happening.

* * *

_

Keysora says:

I don't even know what I just wrote, but I hope it was good, Ann, so you can love it!

Love you so, so much, Ann. You're my favorite stalker in the WORLD, and if you're ever down, I hope you'll get your cheering-up Yuriku fix from me. You are, always have been, and always will be AWESOME. It was all I could do not to take Yuffie's name in this fic and just replace it with yours.

Here's to Squffie,to Yuriku, To Kad-everything, to Debeo Memoria, to Squffielove, to Amerkaze. net/forum,to Rikuteaching Yuffie's children how to shave theirlegs, to making Zack blush,toKadaj's leather-clad butt, to Squall's leather clad butt, to Leon's, to Cloud's, to Gippal's, to Inuyasha'sto Cid's (oops),to the Riku Cult, to New Years, to us, to you...

Happy Birthday!


End file.
